John Archibald is a man who suffers greatly because of the lack of help he needs for a son who needs a transplant that may save his life. John is still suffering from his son's illness, finding that his medical insurance will not cover the cost of surgery needed by his child and that alternative government assistance is not available at the time because of the national health care crisis in America. The man decided to take an illegal action to get what he wanted by taking an emergency room in the hospital hostage in order to save his son's life.
5 January 1931, San Diego, California, USA
26 October 1963, New York City, New York, USA
11 June 1960, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
14 September 1973, Queens, New York, USA
1966 in Ontario, Canada
February 13, 1981 in Oakville, Ontario, Canada
1 December 1951, Jamaica, New York, USA
21 July 1970, Santiago, Chile
17 April 1967, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
28 July 1973, Manhasset, New York, USA
20 January 1956, New York City, New York, USA
11 December 1957, St. Vincent, Caribbean Islands
29 December 1975, Frederick, Maryland, USA
9 October 1949, Hartsdale, New York, USA
14 May 1974, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
25 May 1976, Manhattan, New York, USA
19 May 1971, Canada
January 01, 2011
Thought-provoking. Too intense for young teens.
March 13, 2002
Manipulative sentimentality, contrived plot and phony climax.
March 04, 2002
A sappy, melodramatic Denzel Washington vehicle that ensnares you in the standard hostage-movie scenario and doesn't let go until the director runs the whole playbook.
January 21, 2003
A coercive script by James Kearns, and some middling direction by Nick Cassavetes, can't rob the movie of an undeniable, headlong crowd-pleasing power as it tackles an issue that touches us all.
February 24, 2002
It pulls out more stops than that old silent serial The Perils of Pauline. Unfortunately, it's a talkie.
September 24, 2007
The movie comes dangerously close to saying that the solution to a personal grievance is, well, terrorism, when you get right down to it.
December 18, 2006
Social messages, simplistic action, and teary melodrama are manipulatively but unsuccessfully mixed in this picture, which tries to provide a "hard" look at an honest working-class man (Washington) who loses control while trying to save his child's life
April 29, 2009
A hokey and often silly commentary about the medical industry, and corruption within the establishment.
May 17, 2009
Strands good actors in mushy, movie-of-the-week material. [Blu-ray]
January 07, 2004
Instead of presenting the story and allowing us to draw our own conclusions, Cassavetes blatantly tells us what we should think.
November 06, 2002
A polemic in search of a plot.
February 21, 2002
Cassavetes thinks he's making Dog Day Afternoon with a cause, but all he's done is to reduce everything he touches to a shrill, didactic cartoon.
